Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ EDGE

Huuu why the hell any comment of some Bioware "crap" is generating so many reply? I just have too many arguing to reply to replies. I won't quote anybody on purpose and will just answer some points.

The demo was pure (wrong) calculation, I'll admit that. It's still not at all a showcase of the game. For the fights and some design changes yeah, it figures the changes but not really the result.

The lack of view from above:

It doesn't destroy the tactics it just make a tactical analyze more slow and more tricky.

It's fairly well replaced by using pause, selecting various characters and still during pause cam movements from various characters to get a better analyze.

Moreover the system introduce the positioning of a character for a better analysis. In some fight I definitely moved one or some characters to a place allowing a better overview of the situation.

Also DAO was far to be brilliant with its view from above, with cheating no fog management, by allowing attack through walls and some more crap.

Finally the technical cost reducing to avoid have a double texture design for close view and for above view is for me an excellent choice to put more in other stuff like more designed fights, or more developed other good RPG stuff. What's bad is it's just been cost reduction not invested anywhere because clearly DA2 was rushed and certainly hadn't even half of DAO budget probably quite lower.

The waves of reinforcement:

Firstly fk off with those obsessed with "realism", it's not gameplay.

The lack of reinforcements in many DAO fights was totally absurd from the "realism" point of view. Sot let put behind that realism point.

Secondly reinforcement in no way destroy tactical depth. It's an argument overused here but it's totally wrong. Space Hulk is based on reinforcement and that's purely a part of its tactical depth.

DA2 fixed many troubles in DAO fights design:

Huge tune down of weird MMO mechanism of tank, still here and important but requiring much more caution and much less basic mindless abuse.

Stop the potions abuse of DAO, with in DA2 an excellent cooldown management in fights, just that was a huge improvement including from a tactical depth point of view.

Better balance the classes, it's not very important in a single player party game but it's still a good point improved.

Ok I haven't played the series since a long time so right now I don't remember but the list of fights improvements in DA2 was very long.

About reuse of elements:
Most great games do that a lot, BG1 uses it a lot, and it must be done to reduce the cost and put it elsewhere. But for DA2 it's reuse badly done and not hidden a little. I mean it's not the reuse which is bad, what's bad is how the reused was rushed and badly hidden.

About DA2 badder because it was a followup:

I doubt DA2 would have been a good DA1, just too many rushed elements and weirdly rushed elements with no attempt to hide them at all. Just for that I agree the series was requiring a huge "smash in the face".

But I can play indie games so I can play a A game with some weird elements and overall it was, for me, quite good fun.

And I'm quite annoyed when too many players don't quote at all the improvements from DAO, I'm worry we will get back some DAO crap like the tedious camp design for companions and some crap element of fights.

You misunderstand Ihaterpg. DA2 made tactics useless not because it lacked view from above but because, after positioning your team before a fight and starting combat, player found himself/herself in a completely different position and, more often than not, surrounded by a mob.
Problem with reinforcements wasn't that they were there but that those reinforcements materialized out of the thin air (sometimes in the middle of your team) and appeared from most unlikely of places (like the wall behind you).

Yes. Reinforcements coming out from nowhere ( and that sometimes even literally ! ) is simply immersion breaking.

But - it is tale-telling to see that the developing firm actually thought that players wouldn't be noticing that - it shows how they view "us", the players. And the current state of the RPG genre in general, perhaps even. Maybe too much influence of ARPG again ? That it would be "fun" to kill some NPCs, no matter where they came from ? There is no reason for respawning in ARPGs, either. They just pop out of nowhere. In this respect, DA2 indeed IS an ARPG - it used a similar method to generate new enemies like ARPGs do : "Pop out of nowhere".

-- “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

I'm playing the DA:O game again. And in this game, reinforcements also appear from the ground - out of nowhere. There also seems tbe a lot of (hidden) reused content, e.g. the Deep Roads. Some of the maps there seems to be like parts of Orzammar have been reused for some of maps of the Deep Roads. Deep Stalkers appear out of nowhere, from the ground.

And wave combat is also i the Deep Roads. Maybe it is a little more hidden than in DA2, but what else would you call to have to combat group # 1, then group # 2, and then group # 3. Such is if the combat often said up in the Deep Roads and some other places as well.

As for the demo, it is clear at least to me, that the first part of the demo/game was Varric telling the story to Cassanda; Varric being Varric he overdoes it, he exagerates what happened in the framed narrative. (which, btw, seemed a great idea at the time, but it wasn't exactly executed or designed very well). Once, you got through the demo/first part of the game, Varric is the (untrustworthy) narrator of much more toned down story.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Wave combat - I don't have a problem with fighting one mob after another. I do have a problem when next mob parachutes all around me or on the top of me.

In SWTOR, they sometimes come in waves as well - sometimes even almost literally "parachuting" (by using backpack rockets, sort of).
The mobs do this mainly in quest areas, though. Which can be part of the "open world", but most often aren't.
And I began to wonder : Isn't "parachuting" and "respawning" basically the same ? The only difference is the time factor until the enemies appear …

-- “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Sometimes the waves in DA2 didn't bother me at all, or even felt realistic. If you kept an eye on your surroundings you could often predict where reinforcements would logically come from and plan your strategies accordingly.

Other times though they really did just parachute from out of nowhere and it was just silly.